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Friday, 4 May 2012

Project 52: Guild Agency Letters

I finally managed it. I got all the materials, I got the stamps, and I wrote the letter. Now they're all ready to get posted out. I'm quite nervous, though. I've already submitted my work by email to other agencies, though those agencies never explicitly said that they did or did not accept fantasy, and I've heard back from most of them with polite but form rejection letters. But these five agencies I'm sending letters to have mentioned fantasy, or there abouts. But that's still only five agencies.

Most agencies want you to send a synopsis and first three chapters up front; only one of these agencies requested a preliminary letter first. Then I had the idea to write the letters as if they were from the world within the book itself, based on a girl I'd heard of who had written a letter to a university in the style of Cinderella because she wanted to take their creative writing course, and she got in. It's risky, though; I worry that some agencies might take themselves too seriously and not want to deal with someone who will do something so different and light hearted like these letters, but Seeg said at the same time, do I want to work with people who think that way? He has a point, but at the same time there are so few agencies that I can submit to. I'm taking a chance with this anyway, and if I don't hear back from anyone after a few months, I'm just going to do it the right way and send them my material like they expect me to, with a normal letter.

My goal from doing this is purely to stick in their minds. It probably won't help me get signed up, since it's my writing that counts, but at the very least it shows a little creativity and a little bit of me in a simple form. I want them to receive these letters and read them for what they are, but at the same time, I'm hoping that they'll stand out from the usual white/brown envelopes they receive, and letters typed in standard Arial (not Ariel, that's a mermaid, thank you Seeg). I'd think it would get boring, but maybe it's the kind of boring you don't notice because it's normal. Either way, I hope they remember me. If they remember the letter, they may remember the brief plot outline, and then they might...yeah, getting ahead of myself again. I just really, really want this.

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